Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Quotes

Unquestionably society ought to be so organised as to render self-sacrifice superfluous, for as long as men exist who are ready and willing to make sacrifices, so long will egoists take advantage of these sacrifices.

War is not the greatest evil, though it is an evil. The open struggle of the battlefield is not the greatest evil; worse is that chronic condition of society which makes possible the violence of the stronger to the weaker; worse than war are insincerity and falsehood; worse is that egotism hidden under the mask of humanity and nobility in mind; worse is cowardice passing itself off as fortitude; worse is sophistry deceiving the sensible and wise. Death is not worse than a dishonourable life which destroys its own soul as well as that of its neighbour.

Theology is to-day recognised to be the instrument of myth, philosophy to be the instrument of science.

[I]t redounds to the honour of Russian literature that the leading spirits of that literature were the most efficient adversaries of slavery.

A great many people really care very little for their own compatriots, but they hate anything foreign.

Jesus, not Cæsar, I repeat,—this is the meaning of our history and democracy.